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On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Joseph P. McDonald manned the switchboard at Fort Shafter in Hawaii when he received the alarming message that radar had detected a large number of planes approaching from the north, heading fast for Oahu.
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Motorists who use the Pango mobile app to pay at parking meters in Scranton will get reimbursed for any inadvertent overcharges since Sept. 1, the new operator of the city’s parking system said.
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A lawsuit accuses the Lackawanna County commissioners of inadequately staffing the public defender and adult probation offices and failing to provide a sufficient number of counselors at the jail.

A separate complaint claims the commissioners violated the law by appointing eight people to the county board of assessment appeals instead of the state-mandated three members.

Commissioners Jim Wansacz, Corey O’Brien and Patrick O’Malley are named as defendants in the mandamus actions filed late last week by city resident Joseph Pilchesky. In each case, he seeks a temporary injunction and asks the court to order the county to rectify the situation.

County solicitor Donald Frederickson said he had not seen the complaints and could not comment on them directly.

Mr. Pilchesky said the understaffing at the public defender’s office, adult probation and the prison has resulted in a “substantial decrease” in the efficiency and effectiveness in the services each provides to criminal offenders.

The public defender’s office currently has two full-time and nine part-time attorneys; adult probation has 33 officers and the prison has nine counselors, county officials said.

As for the assessment appeals board, which hears challenges of real estate tax assessments, Mr. Pilchesky said board members are paid $10,000 annually. The appointment of eight instead of three members means the county is wasting $50,000 a year, the complaint said.

The appeals board has had more than three members since 2004, when the county expanded its membership from three to nine people.

Contact the writer:

dsingleton@timesshamrock.com

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